Research Guides: Mountaintop: Coal Mine Wars in West Virginia: Representation in Appalachia

Optics, race, class, gender in mining and portrayals of Appalachia

Aluka Storytelling Photography Chris Aluka Berry is a documentary photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia whose long form essays challenge cultural norms and racial stereotypes by exploring race, class, and faith within underrepresented communities.
The Farm Security Administration at the Library of Congress Search in this collection for West Virginia Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives (all in Public Domain) -
Lewis Hine photos of West Virginia Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer for the National Child Labor Committee Collection
Looking without Fear by Roger May In looking at Appalachia—not just from the outside, but from within as well—we reveal more about ourselves as observers than the region objectively. The subjects show us shades of our own individuality. That’s not easy to unpack, or even admit to, but I think it is why some depictions of Appalachia make us uncomfortable. Part of Portraying Appalachia.
Portraying Appalachia Short essays from several artists who have worked in the region
These Photos Will Change the Way You Think About Race in Coal Country The myth that Appalachia is uniformly White lingers, but communities of “Affrilachians” were documented in the 1930s.

African American Coal Miners: Helen, WV A brief history with photos and sources from the National Park Service's African American Auto/Driving Tour and the New River Gorge site.
Standing United, Living Divided: Black coal miners and their fight for justice
(Re)locating Sites of Memory in Appalachia Through Black Spaces and Stories Choices we make in remembering or forgetting shape the narratives we tell. And national memory is inherently intertwined with geography and physical space.
The forgotten history of the US' African American coal towns Fleeing white-led violence and racial segregation laws (known as Jim Crow laws) in Southern states after the end of the US Civil War and the abolition of slavery in 1865, African Americans streamed north into the coal fields of West Virginia in search of jobs and a modicum of security. In the decades that followed, entire communities emerged in coal camps – and thrived, thanks to demand for the much sought-after fuel source. By 1930, around 80,000 African Americans were living in southern West Virginia, a figure that had doubled in just 20 years.

Lost in a (Mis)Gendered Appalachia by Leah Hampton For centuries, national mythology has emphasized rural America’s supposed masculinity. It has caused incalculable damage.
Women and Gender in the Mines: Challenging Masculinity Through History: An Introduction Part of a Special Theme issue of The International Review for Social History, published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2020.

Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia 718 excerpts of sound recordings, 1,256 photographs, and 10 manuscripts from the documenting traditional uses of the mountains in the Big Coal River Valley of southern West Virginia, and exploring cultural dimensions of the ecological crisis from 1992 to 1999. Extensive interviews with local residents on the seasonal harvesting of natural resources--ginseng, ramps (wild leeks), berries, nuts, fish, and game--on occupations, including coal mining and lumbering; and on the impact of large scale industries such as logging and mountaintop removal mining on local communities. Cultural and religious community events were a focus of the project, including storytelling, community dinners and foodways, baptisms, and cemetery customs.